Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Viktor Orb\u00e1n \u2014 Hungary\u2019s former prime minister, a Donald Trump acolyte and an avid soccer fan \u2014 is set to attend both semifinals and the final of the World Cup.<\/p>\n
Despite an endorsement from the U.S. president, Orb\u00e1n lost Hungary\u2019s election in a landslide<\/a>in April, and has made few public appearances since. Hungarian outlet Index reported that the former prime minister<\/a>, who remains leader of his Fidesz party, traveled to the U.S. on Monday to attend the World Cup.<\/p>\n Speaking to Index, Orb\u00e1n said that he could not predict the result of tonight\u2019s Spain-France matchup but that France was the better team.<\/p>\n Orb\u00e1n went on to compare the match to the 1954 World Cup final, in which West Germany upset the overwhelming favorite Hungary 3-2. \u201cWe were the best team, but we still couldn’t win,\u201d Orb\u00e1n said.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Orb\u00e1n\u2019s party has never looked weaker at home. On Monday, Fidesz\u2019s parliamentary leader Gergely Guly\u00e1s resigned from his leadership post, and the Hungarian parliament passed a sweeping constitutional amendment<\/a> ousting a number of top officials whom Orb\u00e1n appointed, including the country\u2019s president.<\/p>\n \u201cOrban is abandoning his dwindling followers to attend the World Cup (with no Hungarian team still playing),\u201d said former U.S. State Department official Daniel Fried on X<\/a>. \u201cNot a great look.\u201d<\/p>\n Orb\u00e1n was a semiprofessional soccer player while earning his law degree in the 1980s, and his government invested heavily in soccer during his 16-year rule<\/a>. He founded his own soccer club, Pusk\u00e1s Akad\u00e9mia, in 2007.<\/p>\n